Exploring, “The Shack”- 10- Relationship, Male and Females

In chapter 10 William Young dives into deep waters.

Actually, most of the chapter literally takes place as Jesus and Mack walk on top of water, but the discussion goes into deeper places.  Jesus and Mack are again talking about relationships.  The focus this time is on the “s” word- submission.

First, he speaks about God’s inner relationships and relationship with man.  All parties submit to one another he says.  Well, this is already some tricky ground.  Certainly, their is submission within the Trinity, and God does serve man, but one must not take that submission to mean that all parties have the same amount of authority.  Within the Trinity, all are equal, but there is still an authority that is followed.  That’s something we can read all over the Bible.  In the same way, God may choose to submit himself, to serve man, to give himself to death for us, etc, but that does not mean he is giving up his authority.  It seems Young has an aversion to the word, “authority”, like it’s dirty.  Authority is simply the rightful power to influence or change others.  As creator, this is God’s right and one we see him exercise over and over throughout Scripture.

But would about authority and submission between men and women.  Again, we have to look behind the connotations associated with these words and take them as God would have us.  Young is afraid of any submission with authority attached to it.  That’s why he says things that are correct, but then is afraid of the ending.  He’s right that men and women were created equal.  He’s right that men and women were created different, in order to complement one another.  He’s wrong when he says that submission and authority should always be equal amongst men and women.  He’s on the bandwagon that says women submitting to men and men taking authority is the fall.  When we read Gen. 1-2, prefall, we see that man is already granted authority.  It’s a natural thing, a good thing.  After the fall he exercises it in a sinful way, which actually leads to part of the curse in Gen. 3, that women will often resent this ordering.

I always like to go back to Genesis 1 and 2. There we find God’s design for our world, that which we should desire, and there we see a vision where there is authority and submission, between man and women, between man and God, and rather than resent it, it is a beautiful part of God’s design.

Just a few quick thoughts on a complicated topic.

Tags: authority, man and woman, submission, The Shack